Glucose-asparagine-agar: Good growth, restricted, rather flat; edges lobate; surface warty, glistening, at first pale orange, later ochre-yellow; consistency crumbly. After 5 to 6 weeks the growth is paler with many small, round, raised, yellow, secondary colonies. Agar: Rich, salmon-pink to yellow, soft growth. Glucose-nutrient agar: Excellent growth, spreading, flat, dense; edges lobate; surface folded, glistening, yellow, gradually chang- ing to deep orange-red. Nutrient broth: Fair growth; thin pel- licle; granular sediment, at first cream- colored, later red; broth clear at first, slightly turbid after 3 weeks. Milk: Good growth; pellicle of small, cream-colored granules after 2 days ; later a thick orange sediment. Not coagulated but appears slightly cleared after 5 weeks, the reaction becoming alkaline. Potato. Good growth, raised, warty, crumbly, glistening, at first buff, changing to orange and finally to almost blood-red. Indole not produced. No acid from glucose or glycerol. Sucrose not inverted, although it is read- ily utilized with sodium nitrate as a source of nitrogen. Starch not hydrolyzed. Paraffin readily utilized as a source of carbon. Phenol not utilized. Nitrites produced from nitrates. Nitrate, ammonium salts, asparagine and peptone are utilized almost equally well with glucose as source of carbon, although the growth is most rapid with peptone. No growth in oxygen-free atmosphere. Relationships to other species: Closely related to Nocardia corallina. Source: Isolated from soil from Rotham- sted, England, by means of an ethylamine- enriched medium, at 37° C. Habitat: Probably soil. 16. Nocardia rubropertincta (Hefferan, 1904) Waksman and Henrici, 1948. (Butter- bacillus, Grassberger, Miinch. med. Wochn- schr., 46, 1899, 343; Bacillus rubropertinctus Hefferan, Cent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 11, 1904, 460; Proactinomyces rubropertinctus Reed, in Manual, 5th ed., 1939, 835; Waksman and Henrici, in Manual, 6th ed., 1948, 904.) rub.ro. per. tinc'ta. L. adj. ruber red; L. prefix per very; L. part. adj. tinctus dyed, colored; M.L. adj. rubropertinctus heavily dyed red. Original description supplemented by ma- terial taken from Hefferan (op. cit., 1904, 460) and from Jensen (Proc. Linn. Soc. New So. Wales, 49, 1934, 32). Small rods, 0.3 to 0.9 by 1.5 to 3.0 microns. Cells in 18- to 24-hour agar culture in beauti- ful angular arrangement, after 2 to 3 days nearly coccoid, 0.6 by 0.8 micron. Ten- dency for branching on glycerol agar after 2 to 3 days, but branching does not occur commonly though granules of aerial myce- lium are sometimes seen (Jensen). Non- motile. Not acid-fast (Grassberger). Acid-fast (Hefferan). Variable (Jensen). Gram-positive. Gelatin colonies: Irregular with crenate margin and folded surface. Coral-red. Gelatin stab: Surface growth like the colonies. Growth in stab at first thin, then granular to arborescent with chromogene sis. No liquefaction. Agar colonies: Small, granular, becoming pink to red depending on composition of agar. Agar slant: Dry, lustreless (R) to glisten- ing (S), pink to vermilion-red. Broth: Faint, uniform turbidity with salmon-pink pellicle (in scales) which is re- newed on surface as it settles to form a red sediment (Hefferan, Jensen). Litmus milk: Thick, fragile, dull coral-red surface scales and sediment. Unchanged (Hefferan) to alkaline and somewhat viscid after 3 to 4 weeks (Jensen). Potato: Slow but excellent intensive red growth becoming dull orange (Jensen). Benzine, petroleum, paraffin oil and par- affin are utilized as sources of energy; no action on manganese dioxide (Sohngen, Cent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 40, 1914, 554). Nitrites not produced from nitrates; ni- trates, ammonia and asparagine are almost as good sources of nitrogen as peptone (Jensen). Aerobic to facultatively anaerobic. Grows well between 20° and 37° C. (Jen- sen).
